


Jaskier's Turn to Ride

by and_a_dash_of_Angst



Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff and Humor, Gen, No beta we die like stregobor should have, POV Outsider, POV Roach (The Witcher), The Author needs a nap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:09:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28069083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/and_a_dash_of_Angst/pseuds/and_a_dash_of_Angst
Summary: When Geralt completes a contract for a horse breeder who's just lost most of his coin to the tax collector, he accepts the offer of alternative payment in the form of a new horse for his traveling companion.Roach doesn't know what's going on, but that's hardly unusual withthesehumans; she just hopes they don't get into too much troublethistime.Pegasus? He's just happy to be here.
Relationships: (implied) Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia & Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia & Roach, Jaskier | Dandelion & Roach
Comments: 23
Kudos: 134
Collections: The Witcher Flash Fic Challenge #012





	Jaskier's Turn to Ride

**Author's Note:**

> I had a plan. It was a very good plan.  
> This is not that plan. If my plan was the Percy Jackson books, this fic would be the Lightning Thief movie; that's how little they have in common. Oh well.

Roach was expecting to be given most of the morning off while Human-Puppy-Friend fussed over Soft-Predator and worried over his wounds like he was a fragile little colt rather than a nearly-impossible-to-kill man, as was their typical routine on the days after she carried Soft-Predator back to where Human-Puppy-Friend was waiting with a head or talon or some other dead thing attached to her saddle (and _really _, the things she puts up with for a few sugar cubes… she must surely be the most patient horse on the whole Continent!). Therefore, she was honestly quite surprised when her Soft-Predator showed up at her stall door and began going through the process of getting her ready for a day of travel before the sun had fully risen above the horizon. This was far from the first time her humans had done something inexplicably strange, however, so Roach resolved to just go with it for now and hope whatever they were getting up to wouldn’t cause too much trouble (this time).  
When Human-Puppy-Friend was waiting to greet them cheerfully as they exited the stable, Roach’s mild apprehension suddenly grew into full-blown suspicion; Human-Puppy-Friend was _never _voluntarily awake before the sun had plodded through at least a quarter of its path through the sky, and even then, he was _definitely _never this happy to be conscious until they’d already been traveling for a good hour or more. Clearly Roach’s humans were up to something yet again, and as always, she’d be the one having to carry both their idiotic asses away from whatever disaster they inevitably unleashed. At least they didn’t seem to be leaving town town (yet), unless Soft-Predator had for some reason decided to avoid anything resembling an actual road again, so maybe Roach would have some time to relax while her humans did odd human things before whatever chaos they were going to cause this time was unleashed.  
Before too long, she began to pick up the scent of several delicious varieties of food-oats, fruits, and a huge jumble of other horses. She was able to hear several stallions neighing insults at each other just before Soft-Predator led her around a corner and a large field filled with rows of horses of varying age, attitude, and competence (not that you could always tell when someone was going to be useless by first sight, and she _tried _not to judge a rider by their boots, but sometimes you _just know _, okay?). It took her a moment to recognize the human-matching-ground for what it was, seeing as the last time she’d been in a place like this had been when she first met Soft-Predator nearly a decade ago. _Wait. Why is Soft-Predator coming here? He doesn’t need another horse, he already has me! ___  
Roach didn’t manage to pay much attention to the conversation her humans were having with the Mother-Owner, as she was too busy worrying about just why her human had decided to bring her to such a place. Was he replacing her? She knew she wasn’t as young as she was when he first found her, but she was hardly _old _, certainly not old enough that she’d be unable to keep up with his demands of her! Why, it was just last year that they’d won the long race in one of those smelly cities against all those snobby spoiled stallions who’d barely bothered to acknowledge her during the warm ups. She hadn’t been injured or knocked up or anything else that would limit her usefulness, so it couldn’t be that. Maybe she shouldn’t have tried to bite those last few stablehands, but surely they’d deserved it!  
Before she could fall much further down that rabbit hole, Roach noticed that they’d left the Mother-Owner and moved on to the rows of horses with the other humans looking for a steed, and more importantly, that she was still with Soft-Predator and Human-Puppy-Friend; so they weren’t planning on getting rid of her. If not that, though, why on earth were they here?  
Roach’s confusion was not helped at all by her humans’ strange actions over the next several minutes. Human-Puppy-Friend would point at some horse, make excited noises, and then Soft-Predator would lead her over until they stood barely a leg-length apart and they’d all just stand there for the next several minutes. The first time this happened, the other horse, a light tan mare with impossibly smooth looking fur, largely ignored Roach as she happily basked in the affectionate pats Human-Puppy-Friend was layering across her nose. Everything was fine until the other mare noticed Soft-Predator where he stood tucked up against Roach’s far shoulder.  
“Danger! Predator! Get away!” The mare panicked, struggling to pull free of the lead attaching her halter to the fence as her ears flattened and her nostrils flared.  
Despite Roach’s reassurances that for all Soft-Predator might smell more deadly than anything but the terrifying creatures he hunted, he was actually softer than a colt’s mane on the inside, and treated her very well, the other mare refused to calm down until Soft-Predator gently led her away with a defeated sigh. After a short encounter with a rather handsome stallion who made some very inappropriate remarks about the width of her haunches and nearly got bit in return (she was fast, but Soft-Predator was faster and new her well) and a couple other incidents similar to the meeting with the first mare, Human-Puppy-Friend had started drooping, even as he indicated a young black stallion and they all plodded over.  
After a couple minutes spent companionably grazing on the same succulent patch of grass, the stallion, who’s name she had learned was Pegasus, looked over her shoulder and evidently spotted Soft-Predator, if the way his eyes widened was any indication. She tensed, ready for another unpleasant panic that would leave Soft-Predator trying to pretend he wasn’t sad about it even as he pouted for the next week, but Pegasus was definitely not panicking. Sure, his tail was twitching and his ears were perked, but as he started babbling about how exciting it was to meet her, and _was she really a witcher’s horse? My sire told me a story about how his human was saved by a witcher once. Do you really help him fight monsters? How do you learn? Where... _, she mostly just stared at him in shock. Was this how Soft-Predator had felt when he met Human-Puppy-Friend?  
After several minutes of this, Pegasus started in on a long winded speech about the stoic heroics and dignity of witchers and their mounts, which was more than enough to break through Roach’s shock at his strange reaction. She couldn’t help but snort in laughter, cutting him off, as she recalled all the times one (or both) of her humans had done something so very stupid she had wondered how, exactly, either of them had survived through all of foal-hood, let alone all the time spent wandering alone as adults before they had her to look after them.  
“What? Why are you laughing?” Pegasus asked plaintively as Human-Puppy-Friend untied his lead rope from the fence and started leading them back towards the front gate.  
“The way you talk about Soft-Predator, like he’s some great invincible warrior rather than, well-” she cut herself off with a loud whiny of amusement.  
“Instead of what? What do you mean? Oh, you must have so many great stories! How far have you travelled? Where- wait. Not the point. Your Witcher! Why do you keep laughing?” Pegasus babbled as they all exited the field together.  
“Hm. It looks like you’ll find out soon enough.”______________


End file.
